Huskies have plenty of respect for Rockets

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, December 4, 2004

STORRS - UConn football coach Randy Edsall didn't see Toledo punch its ticket to the Motor City Bowl on Thursday night.

Edsall was too busy wrapping up a hectic recruiting week that carried him from Pittsburgh to Atlanta to northern New Jersey.

And yet, that doesn't mean Edsall is unfamiliar with the Rockets (9-3), who beat Miami of Ohio, 35-27, in the Mid-American Conference championship game. With the victory, Toledo will face UConn (7-4) in the Motor City Bowl on Dec. 27 at
Ford Field
in Detroit.

"During the season, I saw (Toledo) a couple of times. I think they're a quality football team," Edsall said Friday, after UConn's first practice since accepting the Motor City invitation Tuesday. "They do a lot of good things offensively and they spread you out.

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"They have a good quarterback, a good running back. They're going to make you defend everything," Edsall added. "Defensively, they play a scheme similar to what we play with an eight-man front, so that gives us some familiarity with them."

Even so, Edsall understands the Huskies have some work to do before they leave for Detroit on Dec. 21. UConn plans to practice at Ford Field, which has a roof to protect the stadium from inclement weather.

The Rockets, meanwhile, are 7-1 in eight career bowl appearances. Toledo's only loss in that span was a 51-25 setback to
Boston College
in the 2002 Motor City Bowl.

Either way, Edsall will take his chances with UConn.

"It feels good to be out here from the standpoint that you know you're going to be playing for something," Edsall said. "Last year, we came out here (as a 9-3 independent) and we weren't sure what was going to happen. This year, we're out here practicing with a purpose.

"I saw a big bounce in their step today. The kids were enthusiastic and excited about being out here."

Ouch, that hurts

Toledo could be without two of its top players when the Rockets meet UConn in the Motor City Bowl.

Sophomore running back
Scooter McDougle
, who was hurt on the last play of the MAC championship game, is out with a knee injury. McDougle racked up a career-high 167 yards on 35 carries against Miami of Ohio.

Junior quarterback
Bruce Gradkowski
is listed as probable, despite leaving the MAC championship game with a separated left shoulder and a broken right hand.

Gradkowski, who had surgery on his throwing hand Friday, broke it in the first half of the MAC title game.

But after the mother-of-all tape jobs at halftime, Gradkowski returned to the game to finish with 251 yards and four touchdowns on 18-of-24 passing.

King hopes to play

After sitting out the last six games with a broken right leg, UConn defensive end
Tyler King
has been cleared for individual workouts, Edsall said. The next step is to get King cleared to practice with the team.

"They're just trying to ease him back into it," Edsall said. "But again, there's no reason to rush him back out there for the team stuff if he's not ready. We still have to get him into some kind of shape.

"Next week, he'll gradually do more and more, each and every day. How many plays he can do and get in, we'll just have to wait and see."

King, a fifth-year senior from North Attleboro, Mass., was unavailable for comment after practice.

Two other Huskies - running back
Cornell Brockington
(neck stinger) and punter Shane Hussar (hamstring) - are also on the mend. Edsall expects both to play in Detroit.

'Pretty remarkable'

When
Steve Richardson
, longtime national college writer for
The Dallas Morning News
, came to Storrs before the start of the 2002 season, he saw a UConn program high on optimism, but not much else.

Suddenly, the Huskies are headed to the Motor City Bowl to play in the first bowl game in school history.

"I think the progress Connecticut has made is pretty remarkable," said Richardson, who also serves as executive director of the
Football Writers Association of America
. "To think they haven't had a losing season in three years as a Division I-A program is quite an accomplishment.

"I think the pieces were always there for it to be successful. Connecticut is a one-school, one-state deal in college football. The UConn people believed - and rightfully so - if you leveraged college football with the existing support for college basketball, it could work."

Richardson also said that Edsall is a bonafide head coaching candidate for the Illinois job and other, high-profile vacancies.

"What he's done there would be very attractive to athletic directors," Richardson said. "I mean, he took a program that was playing Division I-AA and turned it into a bowl team.

"I know there were fewer bowl-eligible teams this season, but that certainly doesn't diminish what he's done at Connecticut."

This and that

As of Friday afternoon, UConn had sold 3,200 of its 10,000-ticket allotment for the Motor City Bowl, school officials said....After practice this morning, Orlovsky plans to attend the state championship football game between Holy Cross and Woodland....UConn's bowl bid is already paying dividends on the recruiting front. The Huskies have 11 recruits on campus this weekend.